Seyi Olusanya’s New Danfo Typeface is Inspired by Lagos’ Iconic Danfo Buses

A unparalleled day for a Lagosian – either the dealer returning from the food market in mile 12 with their items or the 9-5er leaving Gbagada to Lekki – likely entails the use of the commercial bus, Danfo. For over 4 a long time, Danfo has been a staple and the most standard mode of transportation within Africa’s ideally suited city, Lagos.

Inquire of any Lagosian, and right here’s how they’ll sigh the bus to you: It’s painted in yellow, a inspiring coloration of yellow I favor to call the Danfo yellow, with two prolonged vertical murky strips that creep in the midst of its physique. It carries between 14-18 passengers and is advised by a rugged relationship between its driver and its conductor, as they trail by strategy of the ever-busy streets of Lagos.

However whereas Danfo is a assignment of transportation to many, Seyi Olusanya turns our attention to a distinct feature of the buses: the unmissable inscriptions plastered on their our bodies in dauntless, lower-out fonts. Favorite sayings love “In God We Believe,” “No Condition Is Permanent” “No Bustle In Existence” “The Rich Also Bawl” No Food For Idle Man” “Forgive and Neglect” “Allahu Akbar” “One Be pleased” “Bawl Your Hang Bawl” “Honest Perfect fortune,” and loads others displayed on these buses by strategy of brightly colored stickers. Nick from distinctive and look-catching fonts, these messages loaded with day to day recordsdata ask speedy attention. It’s practically as in the occasion that they’re asserting, “Be taught me, you would like to read me!”

For Seyi, the Danfo bus is a palette of inspiration to fabricate a brand new typeface, which he rightly names Danfo. “At some point in 2018, I desired to fabricate a form-led poster impressed by Danfo buses, but I couldn’t receive a appropriate font wherever. This modified into elegant to me on fable of these stickers are so traditional. I assumed they had been printing something that already existed and bettering it with customized lower-outs,” he tells BellaNaija.

And that modified into the starting of the introduction of the typeface. He began visiting bus parks to rob pictures and catch 22 situation the document the distinctive forms of lower-out lettering. “I desired to learn something new, and building a typeface felt noteworthy, so I took it up,” he says.

Seyi created Danfo Std in 2018. However, he modified into in any admire times pushed to present a take to it. “I in any admire times desired to present a take to Danfo Std,” he says. “I built the preliminary Danfo with small theoretical or supreme recordsdata—correct starvation and raw energy of will. I knew its building will likely be greater. There had been no numbers and no punctuation. Google supplied my team with many resources, making it the correct time.”

Seyi prioritises inclusivity in his typeface designs. Danfo helps over 900 languages, collectively along with your entire Google sub-Saharan African character build. This entire enhance goes past correct meeting Google Fonts’ necessities. It reflects his commitment to exporting African culture by strategy of his make firm, Afrotype.

“The extra languages a typeface helps,” he explains, “the extra diverse the of us who can use it. So, appropriate from the starting, I assumed it compulsory to be obvious that every body our typefaces own plump character objects with sizable language enhance. Working with Google Fonts helped us with the structure to realize that to a high long-established.”

One ongoing mumble in the make world is guaranteeing inclusivity. While typefaces are the visible building blocks of language, most commercially readily available fonts advance from Western countries. This creates a predicament the build African designers on the general maintain microscopic alternate ideas that in point of fact mirror their cultural identification.

As an instance, take into accounts a impress in Lagos making an try to fabricate a marketing and marketing marketing and marketing campaign that resonates with a neighborhood target market. If the general readily available typefaces maintain a European comely, it’s going to in point of fact feel love a disconnect. Right here’s a mumble Seyi is passionate about addressing.

“Typefaces are the bodily fabricate our words rob. Most commercially readily available typefaces are British, American, and Swiss. Most steadily, these typefaces mirror respective cultures, even when designed to be “just”. I in point of fact maintain designed impress identities for the upper section of the final decade, working with many African customers, and we feeble typefaces that weren’t African, even when these producers desired to resonate deeply with an African target market. This made me dreadful. It felt dishonest, but we had no favor. Now that form-make resources are extra readily readily available, it feels love the correct time for an African-form make renaissance. Right here’s what we’re witnessing for the time being.”

“We are consistently exporting culture. Presentation is a mountainous deal. Globally exported African skills is deep and genuine. These qualities need to translate to marketing and marketing and verbal change. Colossal form make is the model to head.

There’s the discipline of the cliche patterns and angular advise-form therapy that the remainder of the realm recognises as African. These parts are so traditional and legitimate that even Africans who may presumably maybe well maintain initially hesitated maintain advance to settle for them. We wish extra alternate ideas, extra kind, and further authenticity. Expressive form is a sizable system to tackle all of these complications.

While Danfo has garnered loads of attention, Seyi and his firm, Afrotype, are already wanting ahead. He tells BellaNaija about some upcoming projects and typeface designs in the pipeline.

“Aside from Danfo, we additionally designed Tac, a single-weight typeface impressed by the wordmark from Festac ’77. That’s additionally on Google Fonts. We’re going to receive a intention to fabricate extra weights for Tac and even per chance a stencil version. We additionally intend to fabricate a list of Danfo typefaces, at the least one with shadows. The unusual Danfo is the defective. We are additionally engaged on a typeface tentatively named Isale Eko Slab, which is impressed by Lagos Island’s dense structure. Thrilling times!”

So the next time you make something and yearn to infuse it with African culture, you’ve got a formidable utility at your fingertips. Thanks to Seyi and Afrotype, a typeface that in point of fact embodies your heritage awaits you.

Danfo by @useafrotype is a variable font with a brand new “Factor Form” axis.

The three well-known kinds mirror loads of lower-out shapes impressed by the vinyl lower-out lettering of the public transportation buses in Lagos, Nigeria.

Danfo covers the entire Google sub-saharan African… pic.twitter.com/3M8gSKNd7c

— Google Fonts (@googlefonts) May well 15, 2024